This blue shuffle of responsibility is unimpressive. The road markings are put there by the Controller of Road Traffic under regulations under the Road Traffic Act and enforced by the police. So take as an example the bus stops. The Controller designates them and the police enforce them, although road traffic inspectors are also similarly authorised. If a bus is letting off or picking up passengers in the downtown area anywhere than at a bus stop are the police going to say "It's not my responsibility" and let the buses do as they please? I think not and past experience has shown otherwise. The person who needs to weigh in on this matter and get his officers back in line is the Commissioner of Police. If they won't allow civilians to park in the taxi spots all day then why are they allowing anyone to park in a loading zone all day? Is it laziness on the part of the officer that Mrs. Raine dealt with or is it ignorance of the law? Either way, the Commissioner of Police needs to address this ASAP. No civilian should be told "Call Central Police Station, it's a matter for them." A responsive, responsible police force would say "I will deal with it" and resolve the matter then issue a press release stating what was done and the results.

We can't prosecute Perry because he allegedly didn't break any laws but a way needs to be found to close off these untidy business arrangements by people in government who spend our money willy nilly with friends, family, lovers and others, without any need for accountability, disclosure or obtaining value for money. I see where in the UK these types of "crimes" fall under the aegis of the Auditor-General and the National Accounting Office who submit regular reports to Parliament on government spending and obtaining value for money. How can a man work for government without a written contract saying what he is to do, within what timeframe and at what cost to the public purse. In the NGO that I worked for, we regularly hired consultants and advisors but never without a written contract spelling out all of the terms and conditions of the engagement and how the relationship would come to an end, natural or otherwise. Every new piece of work was a new contract. Any "extras" to an existing contract had to be agreed in writing on the specifics and the cost. No loose ends. We cannot allow these types of loosey goosey arrangements to continue into the future. If necessary, then we need a law or regulations governing government procurement of goods and services so that people who go astray when handing out contracts and public funds can be held to account.

The most important question is how were these men able to get their hands on a gun in the first place? How do these guns get into this country through our porous borders? Are customs and immigration officers in cahoots with whoever is importing them or is our inspection system just that poor? Until we can clamp down on and terminate people's ability to import hand guns and assault rifles into this country, we will continue to have this problem. And for once I agree with the Commissioner of Police that the sentences handed out by the courts for illegal gym and ammunition possession is too lenient. I see where the Chief Magistrate gave Dwight Major 9 months in prison for possessing and unlicensed firearm and bullets.
That's ridiculous. Until you start giving these wannabe hoodlums some real time for illegal gun possession, then to me the courts are sending the wrong message. Guns kill; yeah you can have them for protection but their sole or primary purpose is to kill. So what socially redeeming purpose did the two hoodlums in this news story have a gun for? What socially redeeming purpose did Dwight Major have his gun for or any of the others charged with the same offence? We shouldn't consider giving them any leniency until they disclose where they got the gun from and how.

I didn't see it Minnis getting testy with the press or touchy about the question. Anyone not in the newspaper, TV or radio business knows that reporters are not your friend. As my father explained it to me years ago, they have inches and inches of newsprint or hours and hours of airtime to fill and they don't really care where they get their content from as long as the newspaper is full of print and there is no dead air on TV or the radio. We have to realise that Naughty is being mischievous as well as trying to be humourous. As long as we keep those things in mind, we can enjoy his columns or his radio shows.

The longer we go with this whole Baha Mar affair, the more convinced I become that the Exim Bank or the Construction company decided that they wanted to own the property for whatever they had loaned to Izmirlian. How is it that the company that was doing the construction and whom the developer complained performed shoddy work that was never fixed or corrected winds up owning the property? Or is it that the lender who is difficult to distinguish from the contractor winds up owning the property? Whatever it is, the lender or the contractor has profited to the tune of ownership of the property as the result of shoddy work? Something does not seem right but at the end of the day it arises out of contractual relationships between the developer and the contractor and the developer and the lender. The other part of this whole deal that stinks to its core is the way that none of the foreign workers have been paid. This is most unfair. They worked for the company. They should be paid. Casts the Bahamas in a bad light that it really doesn't care about humans beings regardless of their nationality or that it only cares about human beings of a particular nationality.

If my memory serves me correctly, the late Prince A. Strachan got the contract to construct that building back in 1974. Is it cheaper to remediate the problems or is it cheaper to demolish and rebuild or as suggested above, put a parliamentary complex there and/or new prime minister's official residence. Although one should remember that the Pindling administration purchased the Royal Victoria Gardens complex for the purpose of constructing a new parliamentary complex. Seems like it's time to make some decisions about the General Post Office building, the Royal Victoria complex and the Rodney Bain building (Sassoon House) on the corner of Parliament and Shirley Streets all of which are owned by the government but are totally or partially abandoned as is the old magistrate courts building on the corner of Bank Lane and Shirley Street. And while we are at it, maybe it's time to refurbish and upgrade the library building between Bank Lane and Parliament Street that started out life as the prison and bring it into the 21st century.

The Gaming Board needs to be authorized to resolve these types of matters through binding arbitration. As matters currently stand, a court suit would take a long time and even longer with appeals, possibly all the way to the Privy Council if the decision goes against the deep pockets webshop owners. Maybe they can send the matter to the Utilities Appeal Tribunal who are not doing much of anything these days. Just rename it something else and send the matter there for resolution. So is Paradise Games saying that the Iowa and Indiana state lotteries pulled some shenanigans on bettors similar to the one pulled by Paul Newman and Robert Redford on Robert Shaw in the movie "The Sting"? The burden of proving any shenanigans is on the webshop.

Interesting story and good to know that Mark is involved in tennis coaching. Probably inherited that from his mother. On another note, what is Roger Smith doing these days? Wasn't he involved in coaching in California or something such?

Instead of being open, transparent and accountable for its actions, URCA has become a secretive, closed-lipped organisation that hardly publicizes its activities. URCA fined BTC millions of dollars for power failures that was supposed to be paid to BTC's customers as compensation for lack of service but in a magnificent act of low-key misfeasance gave the money to NEMA. They have appointed/reappointed friends, family and others to the board but haven't made one announcement about it. You wouldn't know unless you looked it up on their helter-shelter website. They changed the law and instead of board members serving for a maximum of two terms before rotating off 3 years, they can now be appointed until they choose to come off, die or are removed for breach of the law. The staggering of terms of board members has gone by the wayside. URCA is so-called consulting the public on the draft Consumer Protection Plan of Bahamas Power & Light but other than publishing it on their website, the public has not gotten one word from URCA about how BPL will compensate them in the event of damage to appliances or what the timeframes are for new installations. While URCA is prohibited from regulating BPL's electricity rates for 5 years from 28th January 2016, it does not mean that URCA cannot regulate BPL in other areas. They were quick to jump down on BTC and fine them for power failures affecting the phone systems but BPL has almost daily and some days multiple power outages but not one peep from URCA about what it is doing or has done in the public's interest to regulate BPL on this issue. No fines, no disciplinary action, nothing but silence. URCA told us in its annual plan that it had outsourced its electricity regulation needs to foreign consultants so in that situation it should not have impacted their ability to complete projects in 2016 or even 2017. The board has lost its way and is only concerned about self-perpetuation for the salaries and benefits. Time to change that and focus on the people's interests with real regulation instead of excuses.

Whoa, you are going far Oracle and giving them more credit than they deserve. The people on the board have no clue about how to develop technical capability and as a consequence have pursued a course to promote friends, family and others. Any analysis of the so-called 30% staff attrition shows that they would have had little to do with impacting the organization's ability to deliver on projects. The real problem impacting the organization's ability to deliver on projects over the past 5 years has been a lack of leadership at the board and management level. The previous government got elected on a mandate that URCA had too much power that needed to be reduced. Consequently that is the path that the organization has pursued since 2012 and the quality and completion of projects since then has declined. URCA keeps using excuses such as the cellular liberalization and now the regulation of electricity have impacted its ability to complete projects. Not true. The timeframe for cellular liberalization was spelled out in the law by the Ingraham administration from the time of the sale of BTC in 2011 but URCA was not ready for it when it became possible in 2014 and further unnecessarily complicated matters. Then URCA knew that it would be regulating electricity from December 2015/January 2016 when the Christie administration enacted the Electricity Act but waited until late 2016 before advertising for the Director of Utilities and Electricity and did not appoint anyone until March 2017.